Massachusetts Home Buyer Guide

Average U.S. mortgage interest rates declined for the fifth straight week, Freddie Mac reported in its weekly mortgage market survey on February 4, 2016. 

Mortgage interest rates are now at the lowest level since late April 2015. Mortgage industry observers claim financial market volatility is the reason rates have decreased.

• A 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage loan averaged 3.72 percent, with an average 0.6 point for the week ending February 4, 2016, down from the previous week when the interest rate for the same loan averaged 3.79 percent. A 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage – the choice for most first-time homebuyers – averaged 3.59 percent during the same period last year.

• The average 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.01 percent, with an average 0.5 point, a decline from 3.07 percent last week. A year ago at this time, the 15-year, fixed-rate mortgage loan, a popular loan term for homeowners who want to refinance, averaged 2.92 percent.

• The five-year, Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.85 percent, with an average 0.4 point. The ARM was down from last week when that loan product averaged 2.90 percent. The 5-year ARM averaged 2.82 percent during the same time frame last year.

"Market volatility – and the associated flight to quality – continued unabated this week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped another 15 basis points, and the 30-year mortgage rate fell 7 basis points as well, to 3.72 percent," Sean Becketti, chief economist for Freddie Mac said. "Both the Treasury yield and the mortgage rate now are in the neighborhood of early-2015 lows. These declines are not what the market anticipated when the Fed raised the Federal funds rate in December. For now, though, sub-4-percent mortgage rates are providing a longer-than-expected opportunity for mortgage borrowers to refinance."

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